The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-05-01
STEAMSHIP NAVIGATION.
lis BIsTORY FROM THE DAYS
OF FULTON
And His Little "CIerm0nt" 10 the
Ocean GREY hounds That Annihll.
ate Space aud Time.

FROM luz DcNtlOpmenL Vi Lne
Steamship" by Commander +. K.
Chadwick, United States Navy, in
Scribner's Magazine for May: 1t
is useless to draw comparisons be-
tween the value of claims of prece-
dence in the history of steam
navigation. The fact that Fulton's
efforts finally started the world to
building steamboats, is indisputable.
All preceding cases were simply
sporadic, and had none OF the con-
tagious power possessed by the ex-
periments on the Hudson. Fulton
himself had already built six steam
boats before one was built elsewhere
than in America. His boats, too,
from the beginning we're of practical
value and not small experiments,
the Clermont herself being 136 feet
long, Is feet broad, 7 feet deep, OF
100 tons; and the diameter of her
wheels was Is feet.
Fulton also has the honor of being
the first to design and mould a war
steamer, which for her time was a
most remarkable production, and by
far the largest cam vessel built be-
fore 1888. She was a fitt'ng monu-
ment to the genius of the mau who
unfortunately did not live to see her
completion aud successful trials.
The Demologos, or Fulton the
First, was laid down June 20, 1874,
and launched October 10Th of the
same year.
She made her first trial on June /,
1915, and on the Fourth of July she
steamed outside of Sandy Hook and
back, distance of 50 miles, in 8
hours and 20 minutes. She was then
supposedly light, as it is stated that
she was again tried September II,
1915, with rs of her guns on board,
and ammunition and stores to bring
her down to nearly IL feet draught.
She steamed from AZ to miles an
hour, Fulton having only promised
3, and may certainly be considered to
have been a success. She was never
commissioned, but was used as a re-
ceiving ship at New York until juno
4, 1929, when she accidentally blewup.
THE First STEAMER TO CROSS THE
ATLANTIC.
In 1919 the Atlantic was first
crossed by ship using steam. This
was the Savannah, of $50 tons,
launched at Corlear's Hook, N. Y,
August %, 1918. She was built to
ply between New York aud Savan-
nah as a sailing packet. She was,
however, purchased by Savannah
merchants and fitted with steam ma
chinery, the paddle wheels being
constructed to fold up and be laid
upon the deck when not in use, her
shaft also having Joint for that pur-
pose. She left Savannah on the 9th
Of May, and reached Liverpool in
twenty five days, using steam eight
cen days. The log book, still pre-
served, notes several times taking
the wheels in on deck in thirty
minutes.
| In August she left Liverpool for
Cronstadt. An effort was made to
sell her to Russia, which failed. She
sailed for Savannah, touching at CO.
penhagen and Arendal, and arrived
in fifty-thre days. Her machinery
later was taken out, and she resumed
her original character as a sailing
packet, and ended her days by being
wrecked on the south coast Of Long
Island.
But steam power had by 1880
grown large enough to strike out
more boldly. The Savaunahs effort
was an attempt in which the steam
was only an auxiliary, and one, too,
OF not very powerful kind. Our
coastwise steamers, as well as those
employed in Great Britain, as also
the voyage of the Enterprise to Cal
cutta in 1925 (though she took 113
days in doing it), had settled the
possibility of the use of steam at sea
and the question had now become
whether ship could be built tC
cross the Atlantic depending en-.
tirely on her steam power. 1t had
become wholly question of fue,
consumption. The Savannah, 1t may
be said, used pitch pine ON her out.
ward voyage, and wood was for {
, very long time the chief fuel fol
steaming purposes in America.
OCEAN GREYHoUNDs.
| Since the year 1879 the following
t great ships have been placed upoI
the Liverpool and New York lines
Taking them in the order of thei
fastest passage, out or home, the.
stand thus:
Davs Hours Mn